My invention deals generally with apparatus intended to assist in the performance of the Heimlich Maneuver to help a choking victim. More specifically, it deals with equipment that the choking victim can use without outside assistance to perform the Heimlich Maneuver on himself or herself.
Thousands of people in the United States die each year from accidental choking. For many years, medical opinion differed as to the most-effective way to deal with accidental choking. Often sharp blows to the back, finger sweeps of the throat, and manual thrusts to the chest were attempted. These methods proved to be not only useless and ineffectual in most cases, but to actually be harmful to the choking victim. In 1985, the American Red Cross, the American Heart Association, and the Surgeon General of the United States determined that methods other than the Heimlich Maneuver can be dangerous and that only the Heimlich Maneuver should be used to treat a choking victim.
Henry J. Heimlich, M.D., devised the Heimlich Maneuver in the early 1970s. It depends for its success on the fact that a choking victim""s lungs have a large volume of air in them even if the person was exhaling when the choking began. If a rescuer presses sharply and repeatedly on the victim""s abdomen, with one balled fist wrapped in the opposite hand, at a point just above the navel, but below the rib cage and the diaphragm, that reservoir of air is expelled up the airway with a great force. This serves to dislodge the obstruction from the victim""s throat.
The Heimlich Maneuver is generally safe and effective. In addition, the average person usually can master it. However, it is far easier for a rescuer to perform this maneuver on the victim than for the victim to assist himself (or herself) in this way. The rescuer, who stands behind the victim, has his arms partially extended and is therefore properly positioned to exert the squeezing compressive force required for the success of the Heimlich Maneuver. The individual victim, acting alone, must try to press his fists and hands against his own abdomen (without any extension or proper leverage) with sufficient force to effect the expulsion of food or some other item from his own throat. This is rendered even more difficult by the fact that the victim is in the process of choking and may be close to unconsciousness as well as substantially weakened.
In addition, many choking victims are elderly people who live alone. Not only are these individuals the most likely to be afflicted by a choking emergency without any available person to assist nearby, they are often frail and would find it difficult to perform the Heimlich Maneuver on themselves at the best of times. When they are in the process of choking, and possibly panicked, their chances of survival are extremely small. There is, therefore, a great need for some type of apparatus to assist individuals in performing the Heimlich Maneuver on themselves.
To date, most devices that have been developed to assist in the performance of the Heimlich Maneuver have featured a ball or dome-shaped head to be pressed against the victim""s abdomen. Usually some type of handles are attached to the head to facilitate the device""s use by the rescuer. These devices may assist the rescuer and help to prevent bruising of the victim""s abdomen, but they do not provide the leverage and positioning needed by the victim in performing the Heimlich Maneuver on himself.
Only two devices known to the applicant have been adapted for use by a victim by including a spacing rod to provide leverage for self use. U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,216, issued to Person in 1979, for a xe2x80x9cThroat Obstruction Expulsion Devicexe2x80x9d, features a spacing rod with a sliding tube mounted thereon. The tube has handles and a disc-shaped head. The spacing rod has a foot for resting or mounting on a tabletop or other surface. In order to use the device, the choking victim places the head of the device against his abdomen and uses the handles on the sliding tube to thrust the head inward and upward so as to perform the Heimlich Maneuver. U.S. Pat. No. 4,182,317, issued to Ash in 1980, for an xe2x80x9cObject Dislodging Method and Apparatusxe2x80x9d, uses a dumbbell-shaped arrangement with two heads connected by a spacing rod. In this device, one head is gripped in order to force the other head against the user""s abdomen. Although the basic principles underlying these prior art attempts are sound, neither device has a head that is well shaped or proportioned for use in the self-performance of the Heimlich Maneuver.
My invention is characterized by a head having lateral extensions and, in the preferred embodiment, a central bulge. It also has a spacing rod with appropriately located handles and a non-slip base pad. The design and construction of my invention optimizes its performance as a Heimlich Maneuver device, turning it into a truly practical apparatus for the use of either a victim or rescuer.